Staff Profile

Clinical Associate Professor Kate Curtis

Kate’s research aims to improve the trauma patient’s experience and clinical outcomes by exploring systems and models of care in trauma.

Clinical Associate Professor Kate Curtis is an internationally respected trauma nurse and researcher with a special interest in trauma models of care, trauma nursing, financial aspects of trauma systems. She has published extensively in the nursing and medical literature, and has been keynote speaker at several international emergency and trauma conferences.

Kate completed her PhD at the University of NSW, investigating the role and impact of the trauma case manager. This was the first time the effect this role has on trauma patient outcomes had been investigated and this research has since been used to implement the trauma case management model of care in numerous Australian Trauma Centres. Other projects have examined the financial cost of the major trauma patient to trauma centres and the impact of a dedicated trauma admitting service on patient outcomes.

Kate has worked in aged care, general medical/surgical, mental health and after a 4 year stint in the Emergency Department at Westmead Hospital, became the Trauma Clinical Nurse Consultant at St George Hospital in 1998. She joined the University of Sydney this year. Kate works regularly as a registered nurse in Wollongong Emergency Department, and has a passion for Emergency and Trauma Nursing.

Kate is committed to the development of Emergency Nurses and has had a long relationship with the College of Emergency Nursing Australasia (CENA), convening their international conferences in 2003 and 2005. Kate has been heavily involved in organising large disaster management and injury prevention symposiums and emergency and trauma nursing seminars. She is on the editorial board of the Australasian Emergency Nurses Journal, a reviewer for “Injury” and the lead editor of the textbook “Emergency and Trauma Nursing”, the first and only Australian text of its kind.

Selected Publications

Curtis, K., & Wiseman, T. (2008). Back to basics - Essential Nursing Care in the ED Part Two. Australasian Emergency Nursing Journal 11(3).

Curtis, K., & Wiseman, T. (2008). Back to basics - Essential Nursing Care in the ED Part One. Australasian Emergency Nursing Journal11(2), 95-99

Fraser, M., & Curtis, K. (2006). A day in the life of a trauma case manager. Australasian Emergency Nursing Journal. 9(2), 73-78.

Curtis, K., Zou, Y., Morris, R., & Black, D. (2006). Trauma Case Management: Improving patient outcomes. Injury 37(7), 626-632

Curtis, K., Nocera, N., Mitten-Lewis, S., & Donoghue, J. (2004). The Trauma Nurse Coordinator in Australia: The inaugural national survey of demographics, role function and resources. Australasian Emergency Nursing Journal. 7(1), 29-38.

Curtis, K., Din, R., Chan, A., & Morris, R. (2002). Reducing the time to clear the Cervical Spine of Trauma Patients in the Emergency Department. Australian Emergency Nursing Journal. Vol 5(2), 15-18.

Curtis, K., Lien, D., Grove, P., Chan, A., & Morris, R. (2002). The impact of trauma case management of patient outcomes. Journal of Trauma; Injury, Infection, and Critical Care. 53(3), 477-482.

Curtis, K., Bollard, L., & Dickson, C. (2002) Coding Errors and the trauma patient – is nursing case management the solution? Australian Health Review. 25(4), 73-80.

Curtis, K. (2001). Nurses' experiences of working with trauma patients. Nursing Standard. 16(9), 33-38.

In Press:

Curtis, K., Dickson, C., Black, D. & Nau, T. (2008). The Cost of Trauma in an Australian Trauma Centre. Australian Health Review

Curtis, K., & Donoghue, J. (2008). Profile and Role Function of the Australian/New Zealand Trauma Coordinator. Journal of Trauma Nursing.

Ursic, C., Curtis, K., Zou, Y., Black, D. (2008). Improved trauma patient outcomes after implementation of a dedicated trauma admitting service. Injury

Ursic, C. & Curtis, K. (2008). Thoracic Trauma Etiology and Assessment. Accident & Emergency Nursing.

Books

Curtis, K., Ramsden, C., & Friendship, J. (2007). Emergency and Trauma Nursing. Sydney: Elsevier.

Curtis, K., & Ursic, C. (2007). Scoring Systems in trauma. In A. Brooks., P. Mahoney., & T. Hodgetts (Eds), Pocketbook of Major Trauma: Resuscitation, diagnosis and acute management (pp. 288-296). London: Churchill Livingstone.

Farrow, N., Caldwell, E., & Curtis, K. (2007). Overview of Trauma in K. Curtis., C. Ramsden., & J. Friendship (Eds.). Emergency and Trauma Nursing (672-692). Sydney: Elsevier.